Hey folks! The monthly Writing Workshop Workshop for April will be on Sunday, the 19th, at 2 p.m. As always, we will meet at Allyn’s Café in Cincinnati’s beautiful Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood.

Here’s why we had to move the date: on April 12, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County will be holding the Ohioana Library Association reception to recognize Hamilton County authors. Both Richard O. Jones and I will be participating. The event, held from 1:30 to about 4 in the main branch of the library, will include both presentations (including one to Kevin Grace, Head Archivist at the University of Cincinnati) and opportunities to talk with local authors and buy their books. Follow the link to learn more.

If you’re looking for a friendly environment with good food in which to share your writing for some gentle, constructive criticism, the Writing Workshop Workshop is for you! We meet at 2 p.m. on the second Sunday of every month at Allyn’s Cafe in historic Columbia-Tusculum. Bring seven minutes’ worth of reading to share, $5 for the kitty — or more if you plan to eat or drink. We meet in the secret back room. I hope to see you there!

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I was invited on a Writing Blog Tour by Trudy Krisher (check out her blog at www.trudykrisher.blogspot.com). I’m ashamed to admit that I was on deadline when my “whistlestop” came, so I hope the train didn’t leave the station without me!

Trudy invited me to answer some questions about my work and writing process. Here are my answers.

1) What are you working on?
I just finished a book for the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing called University of Cincinnati College of Nursing: 125 Years of Transforming Health Care. The book will be published by Orange Frazer Press in time for the college’s 125th anniversary celebration in November. I really enjoyed learning about how UC’s nursing college was formed by a group of Cincinnati’s leading ladies, then went on to become the first to offer a baccalaureate degree in nursing, and is now leading nursing education by offering online nursing degrees and using technology in nursing.

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?
So far all my books have been in the genre of nonfiction, but I have written for both adults and YA. I’d say that my work differs in that no matter what I write (I’m finishing up my first novel now), I want my readers to come away thinking, “Wow—I didn’t know that! That was interesting!” One of my supervisors also told me once, “That sense of humor of yours is never very far from the surface, is it?” He didn’t mean it in a good way, though. Incidentally, he is in my last book, Founders and Famous Families of Cincinnati, but I won’t tell you who he is.

3) Why do you write what you do?
I write what I do for a variety of reasons, but often it’s because I’m asked to and I find the topic interesting. The College of Nursing book will be my eighth book. That means that half of the books I’ve published now were my idea and half were the publisher’s (or client’s) idea. But I have to find it interesting, or I wouldn’t be able to stick with it for an entire book.

4) How does your writing process work?
In almost every case—whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, magazine article or book—I start with a bubble map. I get all my existing ideas down on paper. I get all my “gaps”—my questions, or lack of knowledge—down on paper. Then I start researching, organizing or writing from there, depending on what type of work it is. But I always start with a bubble map. I have about 20 bubble maps going right now for books, essays and articles that I’d like to publish someday. It’s also a good exercise if I find myself stuck in traffic, or a boring meeting, or waiting in a doctor’s office without anything to read. When I finally get to the writing step, I tend to write nonfiction directly on the computer (because it’s less of a visceral process and more of an intellectual one for me). But with fiction, I tend to write it longhand, on lined paper. I spend a bit of time thinking about what type of writing implement I feel like that day. Then I think about what writing position and lighting I want to be in. It’s very organic.

The goal of the Writing Workshop Workshop is to provide a gentle, constructive environment in which people can have their work critiqued and can critique the work of others. Bring seven minutes’ worth of material to read, $5 for the kitty, and extra money if you’d like to eat or drink. All genres are welcome!

If you’re new to the workshop environment, feel free to attend and not read until you get your “sea legs.”

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Founders and Famous Families of Cincinnati has just hit the streets. If you want to hear a little bit about the book, check out the interview I did with Mark Perzel on WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition on May 16, 2014.

Founders and Famous Families starts with a look at the geological forces that made our city the sinus capital of the world that it is, then touches upon the native peoples who were here before the European Americans started arriving from New Jersey, New York and New England. The founding families in Cincinnati have been joined by new faces and new names, but many of them still remain to become the foundational families of the future.

On Wednesday, May 28, we will be holding the official book launch at the Cincinnati Museum Center at 7 p.m. I’ll talk about Nicholas Longworth as part of their regular Insights Lecture Series in a presentation called “a Glass of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, and Wow!” The talk will be followed by Q&A and coffee reception/book signing.

Sunday, March 23, at 2 p.m. will be another of our great Writing Workshop Workshops. As usual, we’ll be gathering downstairs at Olive’s in Cincinnati’s Clifton Gaslight District.

Bring seven minutes’ worth of your writing to read, $5 for the kitty, your books to sell, any publishing or writing questions you’d like to ask, and a friend or two. I hope I will have a big announcement for you!

Head’s up for April: on Sunday, April 27 (same time, same place), at our Writing Workshop Workshop, we’ll be joined by Carol Topp, CPA, author of Business Tips and Taxes for Writers. It’s too late for your 2013 filing, but Carol will have lots of great advice for your 2014 return on how to be a professional writer, in terms of what’s deductible and what’s not.

So put April 27 on your calendar, and in the meantime I hope to see you Sunday, March 23, at 2!